Bonin named LCSO Employee of the Month

Published 9:44 am, Sunday, March 19, 2017

Shelby Bonin joined the Liberty County SheriffÂs Office Dispatch Center just over a year ago. She is the March 2017 employee of the month.

Shelby Bonin joined the Liberty County SheriffÂs Office Dispatch Center just over a year ago. She is the March 2017 employee of the month.

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Bonin named LCSO Employee of the Month

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Shelby Bonin is the Liberty County Sheriff's Office Employee of the Month for March. Bonin, a dispatcher, earned the honor because she displays calmness, coolness and a degree of professionalism in stressful circumstances, said Capt. Ken DeFoor.

"Everyone agreed with the nomination from what they heard coming from this dispatcher during that fateful evening last month when Constable Justin Johnston was struck and critically injured by a driver who disregarded stopped cars, a barricade and then struck a sheriff's unit, with all emergency lights flashing, head-on before glancing off and striking Constable Johnston causing life-threatening injuries," DeFoor said.

In the nomination letter written for Bonin, another employee explained that dispatchers like Bonin live by a creed. They are the voice that calms the mother into breathing life back into their infant son. They are the invisible hand that holds and comforts the elderly man who woke up this morning to find his wife of 50 years has passed away during the night. They are the ones who sends help when the helpless are in need. They anticipate the worse while hoping for the best and are rarely given any thanks for this and many other aspects of their very stressful position as a dispatcher.

"These qualities and many more were displayed by Shelby Bonin during that cold Feb. 15 evening when the radio suddenly crackled with the urgent call from deputies on the scene that an 'officer was down.' This type of call will sometime rattle even the most seasoned officer or dispatcher, but, as was stated by Sheriff [Bobby] Rader in reading the nominations for this award, [Bonin] performed in a manner that upheld all the professional qualities and standards above and beyond of what it takes to be a dispatcher," DeFoor said.

Bonin joined the sheriff's office about a year and a half ago after graduating from Goose Creek Memorial High School. While working 12-hour shifts at the sheriff's office she still finds time to attend Sam Houston University where she will graduate in August with a degree in Criminal Justice.